The exacting price of democracy: China v. India

I have blogged often, like here, about the Chinese/Singapore model for development, versus the Indian approach to it.  

The Economist captures these development models in terms of a few indicators:

China zoomed past India's current level of child mortality rate 33 years ago!  The freedom to express oneself in many ways is perhaps the only difference between these two countries.  It is a significant difference, yes.  But, is that a worthwhile trade-off then?  A tough call ...